New Man in Tunisia
HAHN, LORNA
BAHI LADGHAM New Man in Tunisia BY LORNA HAHN Tunisia, one of the more promising of the less-developed nations, has lately become the scene of triumph for the forces of political moderation....
...In 1968, one former Cabinet member and ambassador, Ahmed Mestiri, resigned from the government in protest...
...Perhaps more revealing, the tall, self-educated Ladgham appears confident he and his colleagues will prevail...
...Production in many spheres has already increased, while the cost of living has decreased...
...This the state would accomplish through actions aimed at creating a series of commercial, industrial and agricultural cooperatives...
...To avoid wasting time, such minor incidentals as methodical research and analysis, careful training of cadres and technicians, and consultations with individuals affected by new socialization measures were dispensed with...
...This brilliant but loosely disciplined young man did little to conceal either his impatience with the moderate pace of social change or his ambition to succeed Bourguiba...
...The catastrophes caused by the October floods have been greatly ameliorated, and generous monetary and technical assistance has been forthcoming from such nations as Belgium, Spain and the United States...
...His comment, however, was not intended to be complimentary...
...For many French officials, and many Americans as well, have long regarded Ladgham a plodding civil servant capable of little more than executing his own chief's orders...
...The new Cabinet formed in November feels that the careful, gradual approach which led to liberation in 1956 should also be applied to the even more difficult task of successful socialization...
...But when it was decided in January 1969 to forcefully collectivize some 11 million acres of privately owned land, the dam burst...
...At the end of August, therefore, when Ben Saleh framed a decree extending the compulsory land collectivization, Bourguiba refused to sign it, insisting that the government reexamine the whole course of Tunisian Socialism...
...mony...
...Ben Saleh was progressively denounced as a traitor by Bourguiba, stripped of all responsibilities, and on November 9 read out of the party...
...his former functions and the task of "general coordination of affairs of state" were assumed by Ladgham...
...The coups de grace were delivered in the ensuing weeks...
...The initial result of the investigation was the prompt decision to end forced collectivization and institute agricultural reform, with participation in cooperatives continuing on a strictly voluntary basis...
...There were some educated suspicions on the part of Ladgham and others that all was not working well...
...Statistics revealed some appalling facts...
...Former Ambassador Roger Seydoux remarked nearly 14 years ago, "Bourguiba does the talking, Ladgham does the work...
...Ladgham was little known or appreciated outside North Africa until the ailing Bourguiba named him Tunisia's first Prime Minister on November 3, following the President's own reelection to a third and final term...
...But the moderate men now in charge at least understand them, and seem determined to deal with them firmly...
...The Prime Minister's speeches explaining that Socialism must serve the people, not the reverse, have been enthusiastically received throughout a very relieved and newly confident country...
...Reports of waste and inefficiency, refusals to work or lack of jobs, increased along with general murmurs of discontent...
...If his lack of flamboyance and spontaneity sometimes alienated impatient youth and fooled foreign observers, he has been shrewd enough to avoid mistaking plaudits for power...
...And agriculture-In which nearly half the population is still engaged-accounted for barely 17 per cent of the national product, compared with 25 per cent in 1960...
...Hoping to absorb rather than alienate such potentially useful men, the President had appointed him Secretary for Social Affairs in 1957, and then in January 1961, amid growing demands for changes at the top, gave him the portfolios of Planning and Finance...
...Put another way, Bourguibism and pragmatism as personified by President Habib Bourguiba's recently designated successor, Bahi Lad-gham, have prevailed over the personal ambitions and aberrations of Ahmed Ben Saleh, erstwhile Secretary of State for Economy, Planning, Finance, and Education...
...Ben Saleh's chance for nearly total economic power came in 1964 when, as a concession to its younger members, the party changed its name to Socialist Destour, committed itself to building a special Tunisian Socialism, and accordingly placed the country's remaining resources in his hands...
...The near crisis of confidence that followed was marked by youthful criticism not so much of the President himself but some of his colleagues, Ladgham most pointedly...
...The trouble began in 1961...
...As he and his colleagues know very well, Tunisia has been sadly surfeited for the last few years with an excess of political theatrics...
...After years of reckless collectivization-compounded by torrential floods that last October ruined the greater part of its industrial, communications and transportation facilities-the country is digging out of its economic shambles, and the self-confident leaders who tried to stampede it into instant Socialism have been replaced...
...Ladgham has managed to accomplish a good deal in his two and a half months in office...
...Farmers directly involved in the new sweep, joined by numerous onlookers gravely concerned about the declining state of agriculture, now protested openly and loudly, while strikes and sabotage mounted...
...Serving in the post of Secretary of State for Coordination (changed to Secretary for the Presidency when Tunisia became a republic), and for many years holding the portfolio for Defense, Ladgham acquired a reputation for hard work, scrupulous honesty and the ability to subordinate personal or doctrinal differences in the interests of harLorna Hahn, a previous contributor, is Professor of International Relations at American University...
...Tunisia's problems remain monumental, of course...
...By the end of that critical year, Ben Saleh had added Economy to his ministries...
...A Neo-Destour militant at the age of 16, his nationalist activities netted him several extended prison sentences-the source of a residual suspicion of France only recently abated, and of his early reluctance to identify completely with Bourguiba, a moderate and eloquent Francophile...
...The repeatedly announced objective was to change the people's mode of thinking by altering the economic structure of their lives as quickly as possible...
...Nevertheless, when internal dissidence threatened Tunisia on the eve of independence, he united the party behind Bourguiba and was elected its Secretary General...
...Still, as the Ambassador implied, the new Prime Minister has, in effect, been running the government machinery and the ruling Neo-Des-tour party since independence...
...Bourguiba, widely credited for his moderation, departed from his characteristic modus operandi that July, when the country suffered heavy casualties in its effort to oust France from the Bizerte naval base...
...The President thereafter referred to him as "my right arm...
...Especially vociferous were the many progressive-minded Destouri-ans gathered around Ben Saleh, the one-time English teacher who at the age of 27, just prior to independence, had become head of Tunisia's major trade union...
...Still, it was felt that Ben Saleh and his plan should be given a fair trial...
...This was followed on September 8 by a Cabinet shuffle that saw Ben Saleh removed from all ministries, execpt Education...
...Salaried agricultural workers on state-owned farms, or farmers who had more or less voluntarily attached themselves to a cooperative in hopes of learning methods of cultivation, receiving better tools, and increasing yields, had ample complaints to be sure, but at least they had not been deprived of working their own usually productive lands in the ways they knew best...
...During 1964-68, for example, the national debt had jumped from $300 million to $610 million, while total production, which had been expected to grow at a rate of 6 per cent, increased only 3 per cent, barely keeping pace with demographic expansion...
Vol. 53 • January 1970 • No. 2
